Covered Bridges Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has 231 covered bridges, Ohio has 157, Indiana has 103 and Vermont has 100. Of course, these numbers are subject to change as weather, vandalism and road construction take their toll on these old timber tunnels. On occasion, especially in Ohio, a new covered bridge is built, so the number of bridges in any state can also go up.

Answer: Wrought

Wrought is for wrought iron bridges. Besides Town, Burr and Queen some other types of truss include; Kingpost, Paddleford, Warren, Smith, Howe, Childs, Post, Brown, McCallum and Haupt.

Answer: Academia

Academia is a Burr Arch bridge about 305 feet long. The longest covered bridge currently in the world is the Hartland Covered Bridge, some 1282 feet long. It is located in New Brunswick, Canada and was built in 1899 and has 7 spans. The longest covered bridges ever built spanned the Susquehanna River and were about a mile long! The longest single span covered bridge is the 233 foot long Bridgeport Covered Bridge which spans the South Yuba River in Nevada County, California.

Answer: About 12,000

Sadly, only about 850 or so remain today. Road construction, vandalism, and weather all contributed to their demise. The Civil War also saw hundreds of covered bridges burnt in the Southern States. At Gettysburg, the retreating southern army tried to burn Saucks bridge but were unsuccessful.

The bridge survives to this day and is a town lattice truss type bridge. This bridge (Saucks) is 91 feet long and was constructed in 1854.

Answer: True

The Luzern, Switzerland bridge was built in 1333. It was about 500 feet long and had 28 spans. The original bridge was accidently? burned when a ship collided with it, I believe in the 1990's. Another old covered bridge, also in Switzerland, the Spreuerbrucke bridge was built in 1408.

Answer: False

The most basic type of covered bridge is actually a kingpost. A kingpost truss is actually a triangle with one reinforced beam from the top of the triangle down to the floor.

Answer: Connecticut

Theodore Burr was a bridge builder who was born in Torringford, Connecticut. His design included an arch that reinforced the covered bridge and made them much stronger. Most of the bridges in Pennsylvania are of his design. His house in New York state is now a library.

Answer: Philadelphia

Records indicate that the first covered bridge built in Pennsylvania was over the Schyulkill River at Market Steet in Philadelphia in 1805.

Answer: True

The truss of the bridge is what was being protected. The roof, the sides (usually board and batten) and the floor boards were periodically replaced as they wore out.

Answer: Parke Co., Indiana

Parke Co., Indiana has about 35 covered bridges. Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania has about 30. Lane County, Oregon has 20 covered bridges, the most in any county west of the Mississippi River. For the record, there are about 300 covered bridges in Europe and the rest of the world.